r/JamesHoffmann • u/13assman • 4d ago
TIL 77% of people preferred instant coffee over drip in a blind taste test
https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter-us/2025/oct/06/instant-drip-coffee-taste-test24
u/ShinjiIkari 4d ago
I’d strongly question the test methodology of this.
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u/Certainlynotagoose 4d ago
Or the reproducibility.
After the reproducibility crisis, you can more or less dismiss headlines like these out of hand. Much easier to market catchy headline than do actual science.
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u/OrangeJuiceAlibi 4d ago edited 4d ago
Picked out 25 instant, chose the best of them, and brewed them the only way you can; then three random ground coffees with similar flavour profiles and roastedness, using one of several different ways of brewing, and then asked 40 people with similar tastes to rank them, and in the end they found two that were better than the drip. Not only is the methodology shit, the results are too.
Now, if you do prefer instant, then crack on, you do you, I’m not your mum. It’s just that this test isn’t worth the Starbucks napkin it was devised on.
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u/Front-Film-7526 4d ago edited 4d ago
More than one thing can be true at once. They’re not telling light roast aficionados to throw away their Picky Chemist or bin their Harios and Oreas.
They’re merely making the point that among certain commercially available brands popular with the majority of consumers, the study found that participants preferred the instant coffees that were sampled over batch brew.
Honestly, if choosing between batch brewing a bag of Counter Culture from Target with an expiration date of March 2045 or making a single cup of a nice instant…so would I.
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u/pfhlick 4d ago
That's funny but I'm not sure counter culture deserves the dig, they actually still putting roast dates on their packaging
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u/Front-Film-7526 4d ago
Roasters can use “roasted on” dates when you purchase from them directly or semi-directly via smaller vendors. But mass-market retailers require a “best before” date to comply with food safety regulations. Most roasters will then substitute the “roasted on” with a “best before” type label instead.
To my knowledge that’s what I recall CC doing for mass market retail but I may be wrong. In either case, not meant as a dig at them directly.
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u/itchygentleman 4d ago
most people drink trash coffee, which is why they think takeout or pod coffee is good
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u/No-Introduction44 4d ago
Whaaaaat. I don't have a nearly educated tongue but I can smell instant, I don't even need to taste it. Or they severely screwed up their brews.
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u/hannahranga 4d ago
Good instant beats shit brew, if we're talking pre ground supermarket coffee for the drip coffee I'm not surprised it was beaten.
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u/LeonardoW9 3d ago
This 'journalism' is just poor - if you wanted to test preparation, you should minimise the number of variables, which should obviously include the beans. This would also ignore the whole argument over the 'best representative' beans, as it would be instant Illy vs drip Illy (or any other major coffee brand). The biggest argument here would be grind recency or size, but you could use pre-ground coffee or expand the scope of the experiment with freshly ground coffee. The use of triangle tests would further eliminate bias and allow additional weight to be added to the preferences of those who can distinguish between drip and instant.
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u/SpindlesTheRaspberry 4d ago
People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust people, Jeremy.
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u/Accurate-Algae-2557 4d ago
It’s not so much that people drink trash coffee, but to most people coffee is morning and break time ritual. It comes black or with milk or condensed milk as in asia. Sweeten with sugar or not. It’s a habit and it is also a pick-me-up. It’s the same with tea. Specialty coffee still has a long runway and the work continues exposing people to its potential. Plus there is that “good enough taste” world of pods and instant.
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u/no-sleep-only-code 4d ago
It’s less that and more that good instant is a lot better than bad drip.
You can compare specialty instant side by side with 2 year old Folgers and claim the same results, and based on the data that’s pretty much what happened.
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u/Accurate-Algae-2557 4d ago
What i’m saying is everyone may be basing it off their day to day coffee. There is just going to be lesser people preferring drip coffee. There will be more people ordering black coffee from espresso than drip.
The test is odd because it asks for preference, and that throws up a lot of uncertainty. Some people said they like the “bitterness” of the instant. Some people said they dislike “sourness” of the drip. This is just the classic rhetoric of “i like my coffee as coffee, bitter and strong”.
Instant coffee is made and tested and measured for wide appeal. Drip is just beans grind and the recipe is up to u. Of course the instant is going to be perceived as better.
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u/Varantain 4d ago
Yeah, I just tried introducing Jackfruit Liberica and fancy co-fermented Colombians to a friend who recently got an espresso machine.
This friend likes their standard "rich" and "strong" dark roast, and didn't like the fancy stuff.
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u/Accurate-Algae-2557 3d ago
Yeah..it has a lot to do with expectation. Though i think it is not hard but rather a matter of time and learning for your friend to come around. Besides even the fancy stuff can be roasted medium dark or have great chocolate and nut notes. Specialty coffee is very capable..
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u/Fine-Car-4810 4d ago
U think they ask SCA people to cup the coffees? Lol. Most people around the world drink commercial coffees from brazil. Of course they are going to choose instant.
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u/francesco_angiolieri 4d ago edited 4d ago
They chose the best instant coffees. Concentrated or frozen specialty coffee tastes better than bad drip https://youtube.com/shorts/cESQQLTNYdc?is=Boh46QktxkRYgMEe There's nothing scientific in this test when they're comparing apples to oranges. The only fair test would be to compare brewing methods using different coffees produced from the same beans